There are two main components to maintaining your web presence.

  • Domain Name Registration (where you buy and pay for your web site name)
  • Web Server Hosting (where your web pages and mailboxes are)

Most companies do both and will cross sell you to add all their services to your shopping cart before you check out. You don’t have to buy everything in one place and I recommend that you don’t.

Domain Registrar

I recommend when you register a domain name, you include private registration. International rules require that valid contact information—known as Whois—is available for every domain name. Private registration cloaks your identity and provides proxy contact information in the Whois database. It also reduces spam. In your cloaked Whois information, you get a proxy email address. They forward email sent to the proxy address after checking for spam.

If you already have a domain name registered, you’ve already done this. If not, I will setup an account for you at your choice of registrar, register all the names you want and provide you with the username and password – because it’s your account.

I use Namecheap for domain name registration. Their name reflects their pricing but that is the only thing cheap about them. Their customer service is stellar and they consistently get good reviews for it.

You can setup your own account and register names with Namecheap – HERE.

Web Server Hosting

In my opinion, it is best to keep your domain name registration separate from hosting. That way if there is a problem with hosting servers, you can move without disturbing name registration. The reverse is also true.

There are hundreds of companies that do web server hosting (and name registration) and I’ve tried several. Typically these are shared hosting where many web sites are hosted on the same server.

Some of the hosting tasks that I can help you with are:

  • SSL certificates
  • Software installation
  • Software security updates for CMS and components (averages about once a month)
  • Checking for site integrity (make sure you haven’t been hacked)
  • Backups with backup file stored at a different location
  • Google Analytics – monthly reports available on request

A2 Hosting is a reliable and affordable hosting company that I use and highly recommend. If you’d like to setup your own account, please sign up through me, I get some commission, too. CLICK HERE TO SIGNUP AT A2